Singapore stocks rise at Wednesday's open; STI up 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks rose in early trade on Wednesday (Jan 19) for the third consecutive day after Wall Street closed lower overnight with investors worrying about higher interest rates.

The Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 0.3 per cent or 9.3 points to 3,289.34 as at 9.03 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 66 to 59 after 71.8 million securities worth S$68.4 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Sembcorp Marine S51 : S51 0%. Its shares climbed 2.4 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.084 with 11.2 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities include Shen Yao A78and Jiutian Chemical C8R : C8R 0%. Shen Yao traded flat at S$0.003 while Jiutian Chemical was down 1.2 per cent or S$0.001 to trade at S$0.081.

Index counter Genting Singapore G13 : G13 0%was also among the most actively traded securities. Shares of the resort company rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.785.

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The trio of local banks were mixed on Wednesday morning. DBS was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.16 at S$36.08 and UOB climbed 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$30. On the other hand, OCBC dropped 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$12.24 as at 9.03 am.

Over on Wall Street, shares ended lower on Tuesday after a rise in short-term US Treasury yields as market watchers fear the Federal Reserve could lift rates twice as much as they previously thought.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.5 per cent at 35,368.47. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.8 per cent to 4,577.13, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 2.6 per cent to 14,506.90.

Meanwhile, European shares closed at a 1-week low on Tuesday, following the increased expectations for an interest rate hike in the US. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped 1 per cent to 479.79 points with tech stocks losing the most.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo opened lower on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.2 per cent or 339.64 points to 27,917.61 at the open, while the broader Topix index lost 1.2 per cent or 24.4 points to 1,953.98.